South Elgin spoils West Aurora's return to Upstate Eight

West Aurora needed only 5 plays to score its first touchdown in an Upstate Eight Conference football in 17 years Friday night.

But not much else went according to plan for the Blackhawks against South Elgin in the schools' Valley Division game in Aurora.

South Elgin scored on all five of its first-half possessions and ultimately exploded for more than 600 yards of total offense in its 62-27 victory.

The offensive heroes for the Storm enabled South Elgin to overcome a pair of first-quarter one-score deficits.

Hayden Nelson was the conductor of the South Elgin runaway offensive express.

The senior quarterback rushed for one touchdown and threw for another; he missed only one target all night in completing 11 of 12 passes for 198 yards.

The Storm (2-1, 1-0) repeatedly burned West Aurora (0-3, 0-1) with a quick-strike, big-play attack.

South Elgin scored five times in a little more than eight minutes of possession time in the first half, which ended with the Storm leading 34-20.

"The big plays come from all the hard work from the offseason," Nelson said. "The line did great. The wide receivers did an amazing job blocking."

Storm running backs Shawn Griffin and Kyle Ware were a singular one-two punch.

Ware romped for the first of his two scores - from 59 yards out - on the second Storm play from scrimmage; the junior initiated a running clock early in the fourth quarter with his 37-yard burst.

Griffin had his twin scores on back-to-back second-quarter possessions with a 10-yard sweep and 69-yard run in which he was never touched.

"If the blocking wasn't there, we wouldn't have had any of the big plays," Griffin said. "The blocking just made it work."

Griffin finished with 161 yards rushing on 11 carries; Ware needed eight touches to gain 124 yards.

Andrew Kamienski was the other big-play performer for the Storm.

The junior wide receiver hauled in 7 passes for 151 yards and two touchdowns.

"Our coach (Patrick Pisorio) tells us to play like it's the last play," Kamienski said. "We have scored on the first possession in every game. I was trying to put myself in position to help the team win."

"We struggled with their speed," West Aurora coach Nate Eimer said. "Their No. 2 (Kaminsky) kept making play after play. Their quarterback kept making play after play. That was embarrassing from my perspective. Our captains and seniors have to step up."

West Aurora had single scores from DaQuan Cross, David Williams, T.J. Jackson and Davion Cross.